I can remember a time when I promised myself I wouldn’t be one of those preachers who makes football references every Sunday of the season, so I hope former me will forgive current me today. It’s not really a football reference directly; it’s just about football players. Or even more directly football players who have a podcast.
I’m a pretty regular listener of the podcast hosted by the Kelce brothers called New Heights. For those who are not consumers of football or pop culture media, Travis Kelce is, to some, famous for being a tight end with the Kansas City Chiefs, and, to others, for being engaged to Taylor Swift. Jason Kelce, of course, is a retired center who played for the Eagles. Like some of my media references in sermons, this podcast gets a “listen with caution” rating if you decide you want to hear what I listen to and are upset easily by coarse language.
All that said, on the show, in addition to analyzing weekly football games, talking about their charities and outings, and at least one time breaking world entertainment news with a Taylor Swift album announcement, the Kelces use their podcast to interview other players. I’ll admit I don’t always understand the deep details they get into when they dissect specific plays or schemes, so I sometimes nod along until they get to the “human interest” stuff. One question they always ask a new guest is, “What was your ‘welcome to the NFL’ moment?” What was that moment when a player knew they had made it, whatever that means for them. It isn’t necessarily the first day in the locker room or the first time they play a game in the pros. For some it was even a year or to after that, when they first stepped out on a field before a packed stadium and they heard someone shouting their name specifically. I remember one guest described lining up across the ball from their childhood hero, and another taking his first big hit. He said he came up smiling, if aching, because he knew he was living his dream. Whatever experience a guest describes, their “Welcome to the NFL moment” was a moment of radical new understanding of who they are and what they are a part of, a profound shift in self-identity.
The first part of the third chapter of Matthew’s gospel gives us an introduction to John the Baptist. We read there that his ministry in the wilderness of Judea consists of him proclaiming “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near,” and baptizing those who come to him confessing their sins. He ministers in the wilderness, away from the centers of power, but people come to him from those places and others to listen to him, presumably learn from him, and, of course, receive his offering of baptism, a sign of their repentance, turning away from sins and toward God.
He’s not nobody, but at the same time he seems at least a little skeptical when Jesus comes from Galilee to be baptized. They know each other, although Matthew doesn’t dwell on their familial relationship like Luke does in the infancy narratives. But John clearly knows who Jesus is, having told some who came to be baptized by him that there is one coming after him who is more powerful than him.
When Jesus presents himself for baptism, John resists, recognizing that this feels like a role reversal, that he shouldn’t be baptizing Jesus, but Jesus should be baptizing him. Jesus has something… more; Jesus is someone more. This request didn’t line up with his understanding of their hierarchy or his relationship to Jesus. “Do you come to me?” he asks, in a moment that might be described as an identity crisis.
I imagine him sort of looking around as if he might find the real person Jesus is looking for. Like that moment when a new parent is driving home from the hospital with their first newborn child or maybe that first time you’re home alone together. (Please tell me this wasn’t just me.) You look around and wonder, “So when are the grown ups going to show up and take care of this baby.” Welcome to parenthood!
Or the first day you drive off in the car by yourself without a parent or passenger. Welcome to mobility!
Or the first day of work after a promotion when you wonder if you really are the one in charge. Welcome to responsibility!
Or the first time someone asks you for instructions or help understanding a task. Welcome to expertise!
Or when you’re sitting around with friends or colleagues, musing about the future of your company or service organization, dreaming about the things the people in charge could do to make it better, when you look at each other and suddenly realize that you are the people in charge now. Welcome to leadership!
These “welcome to” moments, like a “Welcome to the NFL” moment, mark a shift in our identity, a change in our understanding of our potential and purpose. They serve as markers of time; we might even count our lives by them – before baby and after, before the job and after, before car keys and after.
This moment John has with Jesus feels like one of those moments. “Welcome to gospel ministry.” Suddenly John is faced with the gravity, the enormity of what his ministry is really about, what preparing the way really means. Until now it’s largely been about getting the people ready for Jesus, but now he’s learning it’s also about getting Jesus ready for the people.
The kind of baptism John offered was a baptism for repentance, usually thought about in conjunction with the confession of sins. But repentance is about more than just confessing sins, turning away from them. It’s also about turning toward God. And that’s what I think Jesus is doing in submitting himself to John’s baptism. Jesus is turning toward the ministry for which he has been sent, turning toward the servanthood for which he has been preparing, turning toward the people God has given him to as a covenant, a redeemer, a bearer of justice.
It feels out of sorts for John, out of order, because he recognizes Jesus’ power and authority, but it is entirely in order. It is good and faithful and right because John is the repentance guy. He is the one to whom people come to mark their change of direction. That’s what Jesus is trying to demonstrate publicly; that it is time. This is the moment. He is turning toward the purposes God has for him.
The voice from heaven that comes as he rises from the water announces it for all to hear. While there have been messengers who have spoken for God earlier in this story, this is the first time God’s voice is heard directly, and this is what God chooses to say. Jesus is God’s Son. He is the Beloved, with whom God is well pleased. With this pronouncement all the prophecies from of old are heard in a new way. They shine a spotlight on Jesus, telling all who witness the baptism, “This is him! This is my servant, the one I have chosen, the one in whom I delight. He will bring forth justice. With humility and gentleness, with compassion and care, he will teach all of creation what it means to be in relationship with God and with one another.”
When we look at him, when we look at Jesus, we will see what God desires and what God is doing in the world. Our eyes will be opened; we will be brought out of prisons of ignorance. And, and! Not just metaphorically, through the work of Jesus, his healing and transforming grace, the eyes of those who have been blind will be opened. Those who are captives and are held in oppressive bondage will be free.
This is God’s Son. This is the Beloved. This is the one with whom God is well pleased. And this is the one, by Jesus’s request, John is invited to be in ministry with. John’s “Welcome to ministry” moment, while it may produce a momentary crisis, happens, when Jesus comes from Galilee to be baptized by John. It’s in this moment that he must be rethinking who he is, moving from one who prepares the way of the Lord, to one who is walking with Jesus, who is part of his story and his mission, who participates in Jesus’s work in the world by facilitating his introduction to the world. He may feel unworthy of the task, but Jesus says it happens this way to “fulfill all righteousness.” That is, to put them in right relationship with one another.
Relationship is what biblical righteousness is all about. Righteousness isn’t a morality checklist. It isn’t about making sure we measure up to some endless list of rights and wrongs. It isn’t a ruler that measures if we’re good enough, holy enough, or perfect enough. Righteousness is about a relationship with the Divine One. It’s about walking along side the Holy One.
When Jesus comes to John for baptism, it is a living out of this righteousness. It’s a right re-ordering of this relationship, one in which God’s people are a part of God’s work. It shows us that those who recognize Jesus’ power are called to participate in his ministry. It’s a demonstration that righteousness means walking hand in hand with God.
I’m not sure that’s the ministry John was expecting. Just before Jesus’ baptism John was talking with some of the people who had come to be baptized by him. He doubted their motives and offered a warning saying that while he was one who could baptize them with water, another was coming who would baptize with fire. He painted a picture of a threshing floor being cleared, with wheat going to the granary and chaff going to an unquenchable fire – a great cosmic sorting.
But then Jesus showed up, not as one with decisive wrath, but one with a humble spirit, submitting to John. He showed up not with a winnowing fork in his hands, but with empty hands. He didn’t scream in the street, but asked for ministry by the river. Like Isaiah described, he couldn’t even bruise or bend a reed, but just as God held out a hand to him with words of affirmation and blessing to carry out holy tasks, he drew John into his work of grace and his way of justice.
This ministry that John is invited into in his Welcome moment is the same ministry we’re invited into as well. A right relationship with Jesus is a relationship built seeking God’s holiness and building God’s kingdom together. Walking with him is about fulfilling the purposes he fulfills, establishing justice through compassion and grace, gentleness shown to the vulnerable and strength and steadfastness in the face of opposition.
In the coming weeks, as we move through a season of Epiphany, we will hear stories and teachings from Jesus ministry, along with words from the prophets who guided his work. They will reveal to us who Jesus is and what he desires for us and for the world.
As we hear these manifestations of God’s will for the world, may we be thinking and praying about how, like John, we are invited to align our lives with the purposes of Jesus. May we listen for God’s own voice that is telling us where to go and how to share God’s love. May we pay attention to the Spirit who accompanies us into difficult and dangerous places, confronting fear and injustice with love.
Where does Jesus want us to be a part of his work in the world?
Scriptures:
Isaiah 42:1-9 & Matthew 3:13-17